How to Increase Your Medium Article Views
How to increase Medium views
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Even though Medium writers are paid based on member reading time, attracting massive amounts of views is certainly a step in the right direction.
Below are 5 strategies to increase views on your Medium articles.
1. Use a Medium Kicker to Create a Collection
Medium has a little known function called the kicker.
The Medium kicker is a short phrase that precedes the title of the article. Kickers can be used as hooks or to further explain titles and they can be used to present a section or classification of content.
For example, in my publication, Medium Blogging Guide, I have a number of sections which are grouped by article theme.
The kicker can be formatted as a link.
When the reader clicks on the kicker, they will be directed to the page of your choosing (can internal or external of Medium).
In the example above, clicking on Medium Writing Tips takes the reader the a featured page in my publication with articles covering writing tips:
Some other examples of writers on Medium using a kicker in such a way:
2. Link Back to Old Articles
There are many ways to approach this second idea, but generally speaking, linking back or citing your old (but relevant articles) is a good strategy.
It is useful to you as a writer because it (potentially) increases total reading time and, if a reader wants to learn more about a subject, they can easily access a more detailed article about the subject.
There are two main approaches to referencing old articles:
Citing article within the body of the text.
Adding article links at the end of article/by your CTA.
I’ve experimented with both and I tend to prefer the second method.
This is because unless the article is really long, I find links in the middle to be a bit disruptive as a reader.
Sometimes disruption is good. It can prompt a reader to click on anther link of yours. But generally, I want readers to finish my articles, and absorb all the content before offering them a choice of continuing to read.
I think this also makes the embedded link feel less like an advertisement and more like a resource.
That is not to say that the first approach of embedding links in the middle of articles won’t boost your views, it definitely will, but I find the second approach a little less aggressive.
I also try to pick the “similar articles” that I feature at the end of my articles, so that they are relevant but not the same topic explicitly discussed in the article.
For example, in What I Learned Working at a Startup Outside of Silicon Valley, the following CTA is utilized at the end of the article:
I like to give readers two articles to choose from (any more than that, then I am worried about decision paralysis kicking in).
Both of the articles I suggest are related in a broad sense (tech, money, entrepreneurship) but they each offer something different than the article about my experience working at a startup.
It’s also worth noting that this article was curated in The Startup, recently. Sometimes publications edit out CTAs or suggested articles.
But in my experience, if they are included at the end, they are less likely to affect your curation odds.
These small links back to old articles have a ripple effect.
If you start reading What I Learned Working at a Startup Outside of Silicon Valley, you are prompted to pick between two articles.
Both are in my own publication (not The Startup) meaning that the reader is now in my publication.
The odds of them reading more of my articles and even signing up for my newsletters just dramatically increased. And, most likely, so will my views.
There are a number of places readers can now click on they explore either article:
As indicated in red, they can click on:
My publication logo (text in red box that reads: Escaping The 9 to 5).
3 of my featured pages (text in red box that reads: Making Money Online, Productivity, Personal Finance)
My Publication Offsite External Link (text in red box that reads: Join Me!)
This is all the more reason that you should create your own Medium publication.
Having your own publication lets you be the judge of what options readers should have when they click on a story link, which is extremely effective at driving traffic.
3. Revise Your Articles
I cannot believe how few authors take the time to do this on Medium.
Why should you go back and revise your articles?
You can check for broken links. As content you link to changes over time, you may be directing readers to broken links. I have seen this dozens of times by big Medium writers, and it seems very lazy to me. Even worse, I’ve noticed many Upscribe form in Medium articles that appear to have some sort of malfunction (it doesn’t render correctly). I couldn’t sign up for someone’s newsletter, which was extremely frustrating as a reader and a loss for the writer.
You can add article links into your old article (promoting newer articles). For example, I wrote Passive Income Ideas for 2020 as a compilation of other articles I had written on passive income. Most people would just add links to Passive Income Ideas for 2020 promoting older articles about passive income. But I added the link to the newer article (Passive Income Ideas for 2020) to the older articles, which has also led to an increase in traffic.
If you had an article that you submitted to a publication, you may have erred on the side of caution and omitted or heavily edited your CTA. By going back and adding article links, CTA’s, or other content, you can promote yourself without derailing your chances at curation. To be clear-you shouldn’t use this to add blatantly offensive or inappropriate content. Just to include your standard CTA.
I hope you found this article useful, and it gave you a few ideas on improving your Medium articles to boost your views!
Until next time!
—Casey
For more Medium writing tips, tricks, and the latest platform updates, sign up for the Medium Blogging Guide Newsletter. Get exclusive Medium writer content sent straight to your inbox!